Artillery barrage figures (particularly WWI)

[Norseman]

Alright somewhere I used to have a table that detailed how many pounds of artillery high explosive per square yard were required to suppress entrenched defenders. Unfortunately I can't find it anywhere and I am hazy on the details. Do any of you happen to know of an online copy or something like that? Because quite frankly it's driving me nuts not to find it.

EDIT: Gah! Meant to post this in HAB, but you know it works here too I suppose...

[Balrog]

I apologize if this is a late reply, but I haven't been to SD.net in awhile and wanted to add something.

I was unable to find exactly what you are looking for, but if you haven't read it, I've found Field Artillery and Firepower to be an interesting read about artillery. It dedicates a chapter to WWI, and about how both sides tried to cope with the increase of firepower in general, such as trying tactics of "destruction" i.e. blow the shit out of everything. But specifically a note on page 251 describes it thus:

A few well-placed machine guns could have held up the offensive on 1 July 1916, and to be sure of hitting every enemy weapon it was calculated that one 18-pdr shell would have to fall in every 25 m of trench, of each successive line of trenches. Accordingly, one 18-pdr was allotted to every 25 m and one "heavy" howitzer to every 60 m.

It was not, however, entirely uniform across the front for even that battle, and some heavily protected German positions still survived as the barrage advanced ahead.

And on page 254:

The offensive on Vimy Ridge in April 1917, which was a part of the Battle of Arras, was subsequently used as a model for its highly centralized C2. Four divisions attacked from positions previously held by just two. The artillery staffs of the latter were tasked to prepare for the arrival of others, after which artillery command was centralized at corps. Artillery assets were distributed to divisions according to their attacking frontage and depth of objective, but every battery position was selected by corps headquarters. In the south, where the objectives were too deep for normal artillery support, ninety 18-pdrs were sited in silent positions just 1,000 m from the front line.

"Destruction" was still the aim, and the preliminary bombardment lasted for seven days, following a gradual buildup over twenty days. Mortars and 18-pdrs were again tasked to cut forward wire, with medium and heavy artillery attacking deeper lines of wire and trenches. Medium and heavy pieces fired ninety-one thousand rounds on 42 km of trench and eight thousand rounds on 8,000 m of wire. The preliminary bombardment included a more sophisticated deception plan with a number of feint barrages, which rolled forward luring troops to leave shelter, only to roll back onto them again. The logistic effort for this operation was formidable. Dumps were established with 600 rpg [rounds per gun] for 18-pdrs, and the ammunition column to sustain this stretched 16 km every night during the preliminary bombardment.

The assault was supported by a barrage that took account of the depth of the defense. Two-thirds of all 18-pdrs fired at targets immediately in front of the leading infantry and one-third fired on targets 100 m ahead of that, while the 4.5-inch howitzers and other "heavies" engaged targets not less than 200 m behind the forward line. Some 18-pdrs fired over 1,000 rpg and some 60-pdrs 200 rpg.

Of course, they soon realized that blowing the shit out of everything wasn't totally ideal, since ground with more craters than the Moon and smashed transportation systems meant you couldn't move all that fast over them, and in the later years switched to "neutralizing" enemy assets - including the abundant use of gas. But yeah, vast amounts of ordinance was used by both sides - an average battle would see thousands of guns fire millions of rounds, just for one army.

[CJvR]

Before:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/berdusco/beforel.gif

After:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/berdusco/afterl.gif

IIRC the WWI artillery barrages blew an average of three meters off the hills around Verdun.

[thejester]

Craig Stockings in Bardia: Myth, Reality and the Heirs of Anzac said the British Army calculated it was one gun for every 24 yards of trench (didn't give a firing rate but based on another action 2-3 RPM), in the context of the Australian assault at Bardia having roughly one gun for every 13 yards...plus NGFS.